Housing benefits from £20m scheme

A £20 million mixed use development to be built in Stamford Hill will not only help to reduce the acute accommodation shortage within the strictly Orthodox community.

It will also cater for their shopping needs, with potentially “the largest kosher food superstore in the UK”.
There is a bidding war for the right to trade in the 760 square metre retail space on the ground floor of the six-storey building at 65-67 Stamford Hill.

A state-of-the-art 1,760 square metre conference facility is also planned for the site. The Agudas Israel Housing Association will be providing 65 residential flats in the development, which received planning approval earlier this month. Balconies will be staggered to ensure a view to the sky, a religious requisite for Succot.

Agudas Israel director Ita Symons said the development on the former Triangle Volvo site was “very exciting”, with over half the units affordable housing.

“There is a housing need that’s unmatched,” she said. “I’ve never seen it so bad, especially with benefits being slashed. Families are being thrown out of their homes and Hackney doesn’t normally have something suitable in the area.” Including the latest development, Agudas Israel aims to deliver 96 new affordable housing units across the UK by March 2015.

But this will not be enough to meet the increasing demand from the strictly Orthodox.
“You can never fill the need, although that won’t stop us trying,” Mrs Symons said.